The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-10-21
PUBLIC OPINION CHANGES

Public opinion is, ever tending to
change. What was current years ago
has been repudiated as unsound.
Narrow.mindedness is giving place to
broader ideas. and public sentiment is
becoming more tolerant towards those
entertaining different views. II is
within the memory of many of our
present citizens when public opinion
would not tolerate the open discussion
of the slavery question. Some of the
best men in this country were treated
with mob violence for presuming to
address the people on the wrongs of
negro bondage. They encountered al
sorts of indignities in their attempts to
gain hearing in behalf of a down.
trodden race. Newspapers advocating
the emancipation of slaves were denied
circulation through the mails, and post
masters were requested not to deliver
them to subscribers. Postmaster Gen.
eral Amos Kendall sent circulars to
postmasters instructing them to with
hold anti-slavery newspapers and treat
them as incendiary publications. Lib.
erty of speech and freedom of the press
were as effectively suppressed in the
United States as in any monarchy in
Europe, particularly in respect to the
rights of the people of color. In this
town in 1910 (then known as South
port a lecturer was advertised to speak
ON the subject of slavery in log school
house on Main street. One of the then
leading citizens of the place declared
that if the lecturer came and attempt ed
to speak on that subject he should be
elected from the house. He was not
alone in this threat. The lecturer did
not come and no disturbance followed.
1t was little after this that promi-
nent citizen of Milwaukee was thrown
into prison for months for rendering
assistance to fugitive slave, fleeing
North to find his way to Canada, where
all slaves found protection and free.
dom. The change of public sentiment
on the subject of slavery is almost
marvellous. That "sum of human
villainies" was fifty years ago the
cherished institution of the South, and
vigorously upheld by the North. The
North, at the bidding of the slave
holder, caught his runaway negroes
and returned them to him free of
charge! People who were then over
whelmed with sense of shame at the
insOlent demands of the South did not
think the time was near at hand when
there would be such a great revolution
of public sentiment in the Northern
states.
Radical changes in public opinion
have taken place in other great inter.
ests of the people during the period
mentioned. But one other will be
noticed at this time.
Our common school system in most
of the Northern states has been essen.
TALLY changed and improved. On the
general education of the people rests
the hope of the future perpetuity of
our Republican institutions. The ad-
vent of free schools was a grand era il.
our educational history, making edu.
cation as free as air and water. Mas.
sachusetts set the example of free
schools; its distinguished citizen, Hor.
ace Mann, made bis influence felt for
free education in the Northern states.
In Wisconsin the agitation of the ques.
ton of free schools began in this town
rs early as 1S45. 1t may appear in
credible to most of the present popula-
ton that the idea of schools without
charge for tuition was then unpopular.
1t was declared to be manifestly unjust
to tax property-holders to support
schools who had no children to educate.
The trainers of our state constitution
inserted provision. making all schools
free without charge for tuition to !
children between the ages of four and |
twenty years. The opinion has been |
that when the constitution